Cdrw Drives

Written by Nicole Madison

A CDRW drive, also known as a CD burner, is a device that both reads information from and writes information to CDs. CDRW drives can be used to create or "burn" compact discs and offer an inexpensive way to back up important data, make music CDs, and store images.

All About CDRW Drives

CDRW drives can be internal or external, and most newer computer systems come with one already installed. Internal CDRW drives are usually faster and more economical than external drives. External CDRW drives, however, do have their advantages. For instance, external CDRW drives are portable and don't need to be installed internally. External CDRW drives can be connected to your computer's USB or SCSI port.

CDRW drives display a series of three numbers followed by an X on their packages. The first number in the series is indicative of the speed at which the drive can record information onto a CD-R disk. CD-R discs can have information recorded to them one time only. The second number is used to indicate the speed at which the drive can rewrite information to a CD-RW disc. CD-RW discs can have information recorded to them several times and are often used to back up hard drive data. The third number is used to indicate the speed at which the drive can read information from a compact disc. The third number is usually as high or higher than the drives recording speed. The "X" at the end of the number stands for 150KBps (kilobytes per second). The final recording, reading and writing speeds of the CDRW drive is determined by multiplying each number by 150KBps.

When comparing drive speeds, remember the faster the drive, the less time the drive will require to read, rewrite, or record data to CDs. If you plan to use the CDRW drive to back up your data each day, it makes sense to purchase a higher speed CDRW drive. The same is true when it comes to recording music to CDs, the faster speed drive you choose, the less time spent waiting.